To: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt Suisse
Copy: The UNHCR Representative in Türkiye
Dear Sir/Madam,
The Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights would like to draw your attention to the alarming situation of three Turkmen migrants in Turkey. On 28 April 2025, bloggers Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov were detained with a view to deporting them to Turkmenistan, an authoritarian state. On 29 May, Umida Bekchanova was detained for the same purpose.
The activists were living in Turkey legally: the two young men were asylum seekers, and Bekchanova was employed in Istanbul. However, the Turkish authorities cancelled their documents in collaboration with Turkmenistan, with which Ankara has close economic ties.
From 2020 onwards, young people began to criticise the Turkmen regime amid the deaths of several dozen Turkmen labour migrants in Turkey, the cover-up of the Coronavirus outbreak in Turkmenistan, and the concealment of the consequences of the devastating hurricane that year. In recent years, they have actively used social media to report systematic violations of Turkmen rights at home and abroad.
Turkish authorities are currently detaining them in various deportation camps and attempting to deport them to Turkmenistan, where they face politically motivated detention and torture.
Over the past two years, Turkmen citizens who have openly criticised the Turkmen government have been repeatedly persecuted abroad. Since 2023, several Turkmen citizens have been secretly deported from Turkey and Russia. Those affected include Farhat Meimankuliev (Durdyev), Rovshen Klychev, Maksat Baimuradov, Merdan Muhammedov, Azat Isakov and Malikberdi Allamyradov, among others.
This must be stopped! We ask that you do not allow the forced deportation of A. Sakhatov, A. Orusov and U. Bekchanova to Turkmenistan — one of the most repressive countries in the world — and that you use all available mechanisms to ensure their departure to a third country instead.
Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
